1 week Ago By Kathryn M. Campbell, Special to Montreal Gazette
Article content Quebec’s police ethics tribunal has handed Montreal Police Const. Guillaume Joly-Tessier a 25-day suspension without pay for his conduct around the search for now convicted hit man Frédérick Silva. This suspension was based on Joly-Tessier’s surreptitious use of a stamp belonging to a justice of the peace, without her knowledge, that served to assist the police in finally arresting Silva.
What Joly-Tessier did was illegal — he waited until the justice of the peace had left the room and used her stamp on a fake warrant she had not signed. Further to this, he cut out her signature, affixed it to the falsified document, added other details and photocopied it to make it look more credible. Joly-Tessier justified that his actions were based on the urgency of the matter as Silva was wanted for more than one murder, was considered dangerous and had evaded capture for almost two years.
At the tribunal, the administrative judge, Marc-Antoine Adam, condemned Joly-Tessier’s actions, but he also underscored the importance of viewing them in context. Moreover, the police commissioner emphasized that the manner in which the police gathered the evidence could have endangered the whole case against Silva and resulted in the charges being dropped. These actions raise several questions about the extent to which police are willing to go when seeking alleged criminals who prove to be evasive.
Under Section 25 of the Criminal Code, certain acts (which would otherwise be criminal offences) are permitted in the administration, investigation or enforcement of the law in cases where police are acting on reasonable grounds and are justified, required or authorized to do so. Effectively, this protects police from criminal liability for acts committed while enforcing or administering the law, and there are stringent limitations with respect to the police use of force. In this instance, while Joly-Tessier’s acts were fraudulent and not assaultive, this section nonetheless permits a number of illegalities on the part of the police — and it begs the question as to where that imaginary line is to be drawn.
I would hope that the days of Dirty Harry and “means-justify-the-ends” policing are in the past. However, I believe a 25-day suspension for what is effectively theft, forgery and falsifying documents sends the wrong message. The police are not above the law and should not be made to feel that they are.
Some would likely argue that a suspect such as Silva, involved in organized crime and ultimately found guilty for four murders and one attempted murder (now serving five life sentences) deserves to be caught by the police, regardless of how they go about doing it. I would contend, however, that this type of thinking leads to a slippery slope. If the legal protections contained within our Charter of Rights and Freedoms are ignored for some individuals — those branded as “undesirables” — and not applied in the same way to all Canadians, then they lose their weight and fail to safeguard everyone.
No doubt the city is a safer place when members of organized criminal gangs are behind bars. However, the means used to gain their capture must be within the law, as otherwise the police are running the risk that the charges may be dropped. But the larger problem, which sometimes gets lost in the shuffle, is that if our criminal justice system permits illegal acts on the part of the police with near-impunity, then the risk is that the system itself will lose its legitimacy.
Kathryn M. Campbell is a professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa. She resides in Montreal.
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